Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 11783

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 107

Northwest Africa 11783 (NWA 11783)

(northwestern Africa)
Purchased: 20 September 2014
Mass: 65 g (several pieces)

Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

History: Purchased by Jay Piatek from a Moroccan meteorite dealer.

Physical characteristics: Several visually identical appearing pieces. No fusion crust. A saw cut reveals a fragmental breccia with white feldspathic clasts set in a dark gray ground mass.

Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) This meteorite is a breccia of fragmental pyroxene, olivine, plagioclase grains. There are many domains that are fine-grained and cataclastic with shock melt and vesicles. Fe-metal, chromite, ilmenite, silica, and a phosphate mineral were detected.

Geochemistry: (C. Agee, UNM) olivine Fa: 28.1±4.8, Fe/Mn=100±2, n=4; clinopyroxene Fs_19.0±4.4Wo_23.1±17.6, Fe/Mn=52±8, n=3; plagioclase An_94.6±1.3, n=3; Shock melt (20 μm defocused electron beam, proxy for bulk meteorite composition): SiO₂=46.0±0.4, TiO₂=0.51±0.02, Al₂O₃=28.0±0.5, Cr₂O₃=0.11±0.01, MgO=6.0±0.2, FeO=4.7±0.2, MnO=0.07±0.00, CaO=15.3±0.1, Na₂O=0.61±0.03, K₂O=0.16±0.01 (all wt%), n=7.

Classification: Lunar feldspathic breccia.

Specimens: 13 g including a probe mount on deposit at UNM, Jay Piatek holds the main mass.

Randy Says…

I have not studied Northwest Africa 11783.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NWA 11783